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Showing posts with label asia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label asia. Show all posts

Guest Blog: Who is responsible for climate change?

Posted by Ricci Symons Friday, January 15, 2016 0 comments

By Julie Potyraj from George Washington University,

As extreme weather events occur more commonly across the globe, it is becoming apparent that the implications of climate change extend far past a change in the Earth’s average temperature. Though all countries will be affected, The World Bank cautions that poor countries are the most at risk for complications due to the changes in weather. Increasingly severe droughts, floods, and heat waves will hinder crop production and reduce the availability of safe water. Information collected by Global Agriculture shows that millions of people in the world’s poorest countries rely on either subsistence or commercial agriculture, so any changes in solar radiation, temperature, and hydrologic cycle could threaten their livelihoods. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) crop yields, food prices, and overall food security will be negatively affected by climate change as well, though the exact impact is difficult to calculate due to a variety of determinants that include regional climates, agricultural practices, and types of crops.
 
Certain parts of the world, specifically Africa and Asia, are already suffering from extreme weather events. There has been a push to emphasize funding for climate “adaptation” in addition to climate “mitigation.” Adaptation is the preparation for the effects of climate change, while mitigation involves initiatives that obstruct the progress of climate change. It is no longer enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the future; damage has already been done. Many organizations, like The World Bank, are prioritizing disaster risk management and other immediate climate change adaptation strategies in order to brace for the effects of the Earth’s rising temperature in the world’s poorest countries; without adaptation, those countries are even more exposed and vulnerable.
 
Why? Because a slight change in the Earth’s temperature can result in immeasurable consequences on the daily lives of poor rural communities. Lower crop production, changing landscapes, and shrinking safe water supplies caused by the effects of climate change will hinder economic development and increase world hunger. Severe weather events facilitate the spread of disease. The damage that weather causes to infrastructure and rural environments makes it more difficult to provide people with the medical attention they need. If they are unable to cope with unstable soil conditions and unreliable water availability, rural families may be forced to temporarily or permanently resettle. However, migration can lead to political, social, and economic instability. Migration is an extreme and disruptive adaptation strategy, but it may be the only option for inhabitants of the most vulnerable regions.
 
Though agriculture is actually a contributing factor to greenhouse gas emissions, the people most susceptible to the harmful effects of climate change are not necessarily the people with the power to mitigate the Earth’s rising temperatures. The following data visualization from MHA@GW, the online Executive Master of Health Administration offered through the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University, compares the nations that contribute the most CO2 emissions to the nations that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Many of the most vulnerable nations are already predisposed to severe weather events such as drought and flooding. Unless developed countries take accountability for their contribution to climate change, the world’s most vulnerable countries and communities will increasingly struggle to adapt to its negative effects.


This graphic can be seen in a larger form here.

Remarkable progress in Korea: How did they get there?

Posted by Roxanna Samii Monday, May 12, 2014 0 comments

By Stella Rwabita

A rise from rags to riches-literally- this  is the  Republic of Korea's story. Being one of the poorest countries in Asia almost 60 years ago, Korea has made amazing  rapid transformation in its economic and development growth making it a pillar and beacon of hope in the Asian region and the world at large.

With its Ministry of Foreign affairs announcing an earmark ofmore than 1-billion U.S. dollars for foreign aid next year,Korea plans to spend around 930-million dollars on direct bilateral aid in 2015, and about 280-million dollars in indirect aid through international organizations; 11 percent of portion targeted on agriculture and fisheries systems, reports Arirang News.

IFAD's launch of the Asian Learning series with Korea sharing its experiences frames importance for continued knowledge sharing  and partnership in investing and reducing rural poverty. I must admit being awestruck at the incredible leap Korea has taken in reinventing itself despite the poverty it was drenched in years ago. Mr. Mordasini, Vice-President of IFAD ,rightly expressed this in saying: 

"Korea's transformation from a post-war conflict stage to OECD membership in two generations is remarkable."

Listening to the discussions, a couple of things stood out and seemed to resonate in the minds of all present:

How did Korea get there? What did it do differently? What can be learned and applied that would fit the context of different countries dealing with more or less the same problems that the Republic of  Korea has dealt with?

The Korean delegation humble in their response, reminded us that they are interested in teaching and learning from others. It took hard work, rising up again when they failed, and consistency in engaging communities to pull off the rapid transformation they have experienced. The delegation shared that the  Korean government recognized early enough that it had to encourage and motivate its people in order to move forward.

Agricultural cooperatives for example were set up as early as the 1960s and the government set up a savings campaign arming households with a way of saving their earnings. Rural development Administration offices were established; and this was an extension in transfer of technologies to rural farmers through selection from various villages; thus building a cooperative and communal spirit.

Investments were made in the public sector not only with physical infrastructure,  but  by providing education for allwhich increased the literacy rate, enabling farmers in the rural communities to be empowered and innovative in competing for government support for their projects.

The Korean delegation admitted that access to rural finance was a challenge because of the land reform. In crossing that slippery bridge, Korea notes that overcoming that challenge brought about the green revolution and increase in production  in a short period of time. The Korean government began  a market expansion process and remained consistent in recognizing the rural markets.

It is interesting that Korea's progress ties in with key elements of IFAD's post 2015 MDG goals as expressed by Acting Associate Vice-President of IFAD's Strategy and Knowledge Department, Gary Howe.

Too good to be true? It does sound so. However, the  Korean delegation admitting their faults and failures was reassuring and so other member states should not feel alone. It is in the getting up again after a fall that will be the true test of progress and prosperity.

Living on the edge: Small farmers on Vietnam’s sea border

Posted by Christopher Neglia Tuesday, March 25, 2014 0 comments

Lam Van Nhien extending a net to harvest shrimp from his aquaculture pond ©IFAD/C.Neglia

On a small inlet only five hundred metres from the coast, Lam Van Nhien points towards a hedge of mangroves. He explains they form a natural barrier, offering at least some protection against sea water that can enter his shrimp pond.

Nhien lives on about 0.5 hectares in Bao Thuan commune with his wife Thai Ngoc Diem. In their pond they raise freshwater shrimp, crab and catfish. They also grow watermelons in the sandy soil. The couple have two children who live with their grandparents at this time of year, when not even a cloudlet forms in the sky.

We visit under a thatched roof in the morning, drinking tea together. The Chairman of the commune is there, along with an officer from the Adaptation in the Mekong Delta (AMD) project. They tell us a familiar story. During the rainy months, sea levels rise and bridge the narrow stretch of land separating us from the beach. If too much sea water enters their pond it can wipe out all of the aquaculture. 

The government has tried to help by constructing a sea dyke and planting rows of pine trees as the last lines of defence. Nhien brings us out to the beach to show us. What we see are overturned trees lying in the surf, their gnarled roots ripped from the ground due to coastal erosion.

During the dry season, the situation is just as precarious. This is what we witness first-hand. There isn’t enough water for Nhien and Diem’s household consumption or to irrigate the watermelons. Scarcity impinges on their daily existence, and they’re forced to conserve wherever they can.

In the afternoon, Diem demonstrates how she tends to the watermelon field. The plants are covered to retain moisture, and she only waters them at the roots. Each day she labours under the intense sun, trimming away at excess stems so that eventually the fruit will grow ripe.

Every two days a boat arrives to the property via a canal and fills two concrete cisterns with freshwater. This is what they depend on to get them through the times of greatest scarcity. Diem says that prices for water in Bao Thuan commune are more than ten times what they are in urban areas.

To face some of these challenges, the AMD project is investing in pro-poor adaptation investments throughout Ben Tre and Tra Vinh provinces, where there are many similarly affected coastal communities.

The project offers interventions such as building salinity barriers and other small infrastructure to safeguard farmers’ fields and aquaculture ponds, promotes salinity monitoring and forecasting to ensure farmers have reliable information on the salinity content of their waterways; and will provide best management practices so that farmers can better protect shrimp larvae, giving their crop the best chance for success. 

The issue of water stress is one of the most critical in this context. Here the project will work to upgrade canal systems for improved water storage, and engender rainwater collection and water-saving irrigation techniques.

The household we visited displayed a real demand for the types of adaptation investments supported by IFAD. Their situation made clear that relying wholly on expensive sea dykes is not enough to protect production, and that more pragmatic approaches can help improve farmers’ knowledge and practices. There are encouraging signs that the AMD project will be effective in this role, when it soon begins its work in earnest. My hope is that small farmers on Vietnam’s sea border will be able to benefit from much needed investment before sea level rise causes more economic loss and displacement. 





Call for Adaptation Knowledge Mobilization and Sharing

Posted by Savis Sadeghian Tuesday, November 19, 2013 0 comments


“Money is not the only solution, we have knowledge” said Keith Alverson, Head of the Climate Change Adaptation and Terrestrial Ecosystems Branch of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), at the Global Adaptation Network (GAN) side event “Experiences on knowledge-sharing from Africa, Asia and Latin America”.

Adaptation requires knowledge generation and sharing. This knowledge may exist for successful adaptation activities, but is often fragmented and not easily accessible. GAN is helping to build climate resilient communities in the most vulnerable areas filling these needs and gaps.
Climate adaptation challenges are too complex for any one country to address on its own. It seems that even the collective efforts of different engaged organizations and research institutions in fighting climate change find it challenging to address its disrupting impacts. Adaptation requires capabilities and resources that can be obtained only from a broad combination of actors from the different multi-stakeholder action networks. Yesterday the Regional Networks under the GAN came together to share their experiences and lessons learnt on mobilizing knowledge and building capacity for adaptation, a cross-learning event between the different regions and regional networks.
Discussions revolved around the main challenges and opportunities for mobilizing adaptation knowledge for supporting planning and implementation. Asia and Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) has put the emphasis on the need to blend climate information in a comprehensible package tailored for the different stakeholders, while the Regional Gateway for Technology Transfer and Climate Change Action in Latin America and the Caribbean (REGATTA) highlighted the importance of the communities of practice and their efforts in integrating climate change into national developments plans. “It’s not just about generating info, but helping to prioritize climate impacts and developing sound vulnerability assessments,” said Bastian Louman from Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE)/REGATTA.

“Knowledge sharing is the most crucial element of adaptation for agricultural farmers,” said Bruce Campbell, Director CGIAR Research Program for Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), “We need to sell the best practices and advocate for policy and regulatory changes linking scientists and communities.”

Examples of such best practices with multiple benefits in Africa were given by Bubu Jallow, from The Gambia/Africa Adaptation Knowledge Network (AAKNet). He reported that the water supply project they developed in Togo allowed livestock owners to avoid migration during dry seasons and at the same time increased fishing activity, while in Mozambique the project building erosion prevention walls constructed by local communities are landscape walls with vegetation that are both preventing floods and malaria. He added that “if the country shows that it has already successful adaptation activities on the ground, it helps to attract climate finance from donors.”

Keith Alverson concluded reminding us that adaptation is a long term phenomenon, it’s an ongoing process taking place over years, and this is the reason why adaptation networks are important to keep track of the knowledge generated and the related successes.

 “Knowledge generation should be a coproduction right from the beginning with thefarmers, it should be a bottom-up approach. We need to understand what exactly they want and what are the main problems and challenges directly from stakeholders,” Said Bruce Campbell.

Based on CGIAR experience, knowledge generation and sharing, particularly with smallholder farmers, should be experiential and not virtual, “we have to work with people” but that also means big transaction costs to engage different stakeholders. How do we track successes?

“There is a baseline for our climate smart villages, based on surveys and impacts studies, and we undertake very concrete measurements on climate info services such as number of farmers insured”. He concluded that “there are very intelligent and creative experiences happening on the ground, it’s crucial that agencies implementing those, share what works and what doesn’t work”.


Liberation from slavery - the power of collective action

Posted by Joanne Levitan Friday, November 8, 2013 0 comments

Producing video stories for IFAD, I have visited many projects in different countries and I have heard some astounding stories of how life has changed for people after project interventions. But in India, I heard one of the most powerful and moving stories that I have come across – a story about liberation from slavery.

There are twelve hundred fishermen who live in Aruacottuthurai village on the Tamil Nadu coast. They say that for most of their lives, they have lived as slaves. Every one of them was in debt to moneylenders – a debt most had inherited from their fathers. In an intricately corrupt system, the moneylenders, the local traders and village leaders were all in cahoots, ensuring that it was impossible for the fishermen to ever pay back what they owed. I spent my time with fisherman Bharathi Dasan. He inherited a debt of  50,000 rupees (about $800) from his father. Like all the fishermen here, each day he would spend a minimum of 12 hours at sea and, when he returned to shore, he had to hand over his entire catch to the moneylenders. The traders conspiring with them would set the price far below market value. Bharathi was not allowed to trade with anyone else or pay off the entire loan when he had a bumper catch.  “We shed tears,” he told me.  “Even though I was going out to sea every day, I didn’t have a happy and peaceful life because on the shore I didn’t get a good price for my fish and I couldn’t feed my family. If it kept going like this what would happen to our village and our people? We were very sad to think of our future in this village.”

In 2004, this situation was compounded by the tsunami which destroyed the fishermen’s boats and nets and halved their catch. Bharathi’s wife Durga Lakshmi described their endless cycle of debt to me: “We didn’t have money for our expenses. So we borrowed more money with interest. Our child fell sick so we had to take her to the hospital. We didn’t have money so we had to borrow it. This is suffering.”

Meanwhile, after the tsunami, the IFAD-funded Post-Tsunami Sustainable Livelihoods Programme for the Coastal Communities of Tamil Nadu (PTSLP) was set up. As the Project Director, Vikram Kapur, explained: “We realised there are enough projects to look after the rehabilitation of the affected people but since the tsunami and other natural calamities are actually endemic to coastal communities it would be better if we could come out with a strategy that would give them sustainable livelihoods and ensure that they are able to withstand such kinds of shocks.” Therefore, ending this crippling cycle of debt became a priority for the project.

Working with the NGO South Indian Federation of Fishermen’s Societies, the project encourages fishermen to form Fish Marketing Societies (FMS) and it provides the FMS with the initial capital to pay off the entirety of their members’ debts to the moneylenders, which the fishermen then slowly pay back. Three years ago, Bharathi joined one of these Societies, which has now appointed its own auctioneers. Every day I saw at least fifty merchants bidding for the daily catch. When I was there, Bharathi had a bumper catch and was delighted with the price he received for it. He was also happy to pay over a certain percentage of this money to his FMS to pay off what he owed on his debt, to pay insurance and the Society management fees. Since selling his catch through the FMS, his income has gone up by 30 per cent. He has bought a second boat and now has four crewmen working for him. He’s been able to build an extension to his home and he sends his three children to private school. “I was liberated from the slavery life. I feel very happy. I now have peace of mind,” he told me.

I was really struck by the power of the group and how, by working collectively, they could resolve a situation that they could never have tackled as individuals. One of the project staff likened it to moving a big boulder. When you try to do it on your own, it doesn’t budge and you’re likely to hurt yourself. When you push it as a group, the boulder can be moved wherever you wish.  

“Previously we were like slaves,” the President of the FMS, Murugaiyan Manivannan told me. “Now we have freedom in selling and we are getting a good price for our hard work. It is only possible due to our unity.”

The fishermen in this village are now free, but hundreds more fishermen along this coast are still in the clutches of the money-lenders. The project has already helped set up 37 Societies so far and 13 more are planned over the next two years. 

Click here to watch the video


Harnessing the remittance boom #gfr2013

Posted by Roxanna Samii Monday, May 20, 2013 0 comments


By Kanayo F. Nwanze

For more than a decade, Asia’s economies have been on the move – and so have its people. The scale of migration from rural to urban areas and across international borders is historically unprecedented, and twenty-first-century Asia is its focal point.

In Asia’s developing countries, the power and potential of remittances – the money that migrant workers send home to their families (many of whom live in poor and remote areas) – is immense. Currently, over 60 million migrant workers from the Asia/Pacific region account for more than half of all remittance flows to developing countries, sending home about $260 billion in 2012.

China, India, and the Philippines are the three largest recipients of remittances, while Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Vietnam are also in the top ten. The money is often a lifeline: it is estimated that 10% of Asian families depend on payments from abroad to obtain their food, clothing, and shelter.
But, while remittances to developing countries are five times higher than official development assistance, the enormous potential returns for society have not been realized – and can be secured only if the flow of money can be channeled into effective rural and agricultural development, particularly in fragile states and post-conflict countries. Doing so would contribute significantly to creating jobs, enhancing food security, and fostering stability in countries emerging from strife.

In order to establish such channels, we must scale up key initiatives, identify new opportunities, and map out the road ahead. The fourth Global Forum on Remittances, which runs May 20-23 in Bangkok, will do just that. Convened by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Bank, the forum will bring together policymakers, private-sector players, and civil-society leaders to chart a course for leveraging the development impact of remittances sent home each year in Asia and around the world.

At IFAD, our starting point is always the three billion people who live in the rural areas of developing countries. We work to create conditions in which poor rural women and men can grow and sell more food, increase their incomes, and determine the direction of their own lives. We believe that diasporas and the global donor community can leverage the flow of migrant investment if they form partnerships with national governments for long-term development of the rural communities that are so often the beginning of the migration chain.

More than 215 million people around the world live outside of the countries they call home. But most families that rely on remittances operate outside of the world’s financial system as well. Despite the global prevalence of electronic money transfers, most migrant workers are excluded from the convenience of modern banking services, dependent on costly cash transfers that often require rural recipients to travel significant distances.

As a result, migrant workers are forced to initiate more than one billion separate transactions worldwide each year. That means more than one billion trips for rural women and men to collect their money. Adding up the cost of the transfer, travel, and time, remittances are far too expensive for people living in poverty.

IFAD has been working in more than 40 countries to ensure that rural families can have easy access to remittances, and are better able to use them as savings or investments that go back into their communities. The amount of money at stake is staggering: It is estimated that over the next five years, more than $2.5 trillion will be sent in remittances to developing countries, with almost 40% – coming in the form of payments of $50, $100, or $500 at a time – destined for rural areas. While the majority of family remittances will always be used to meet immediate needs, IFAD’s experience shows that rural families would seize opportunities to save and invest, even small amounts, if they had better options.

While remittances should and can be leveraged to bring about impressive results in poverty reduction, let us not forget that there is an underlying issue that needs to be addressed. Young people, the leaders and farmers of tomorrow, are leaving their rural communities behind in search of better opportunities. We need to turn rural areas into vibrant and economically stable communities that provide opportunities for young people to earn a living, build their capacities, and start a family.

We should not ignore the enormous development potential of remittances to rural areas. Let us empower families to use their hard-earned money in ways that will help to make migration a matter of choice, not a necessity for the generations to come.

Originally posted on Project Syndicate

IFAD grant and investment programme partnership takes root in Asia-Pacific

Posted by Roxanna Samii Tuesday, September 4, 2012 0 comments

By Sana Jatta


The IFAD grant funded and CIP (International Potato Centre) implemented program “Root and Tuber Crops (RTCs) Research and Development for Food Security in the Asia-Pacific Region” is working with eight investment programmes across the region for food security targeting, opportunities assessment for RTCs innovations, and research and development actions.

Asia-Pacific produces and consumes over 70% of the world’s RTCs – including potato, sweetpotato, cassava, aroids and yams. Along with their increasing feed and industrial uses, RTCs remain key staple and supplementary food among the poor, especially indigenous peoples and women.

The program seeks to enhance RTCs’ contribution to food security in five countries – Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia and the Philippines. Its multi-sectoral partnership brings together agricultural and nutrition research institutes, universities, development NGOs, government agencies for agricultural extension and for trade and investment, and private-sector service providers for business development support.

At its first annual meeting held in Chengdu, China last August 28 -  01 September, the grant programme shared its on-going research and development efforts with investment programmes through collaborative workplans, co-funding and joint implementation.

Examples of partnership with IFAD investment programs during 2011-12 include:


Program Year 1 (2011-12) implementation marked the launching of the programme brandname FoodSTART -- Food Security Through Asian Root and Tuber Crops. Focus-site assessment studies on RTCs-for-household food security were conducted through community PRAs, formal household surveys and individual (adult-child) food intake assessment. Meanwhile, a pilot mapping of RTCs-for-food security was initiated, by overlaying crop production with poverty and nutrition information.

The China meeting convened 35 representatives from collaborating organizations led by Dindo Campilan, FoodSTART coordinator and CIP regional science leader for Asia SP-RTCs. Representing IFAD at the meeting in China were the program task manager Sana F. K. Jatta (Country Program Manager, Asia and the Pacific Division, IFAD) and supervision mission members Anura Herath (Country Program Officer, Sri Lanka and the Maldives) and He Qibin (IFAD consultant). Also during the meeting, the programme steering committee discussed and approved the FoodSTART 2012-13 annual workplan and budget after taking note of the 2011-2012 progress and financial reports.